Tag Archives: judgments of God

The Five Judgments of God

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There are five judgments that we know of. Here they are.

Judgment #1: Of the Believer and Sin

The first has to do with the believer and sin. Will he be condemned or not because of his sins? How will God judge the believer? Well, right from the start we must say that God has already made a judgment on this. He has already declared every believer innocent based on Christ’s finished work on the cross. In 1 peter 2:24 it says,

And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

Then in Romans 8:1 and 2 it says,

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Here is a third wonderful promise as to this judgment; in John 5:24 Jesus says to us,

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

Judgment #2: Of the Believer and his Works

This second judgment is in regard to the believer and his works. This judgment, often called the BEMA judgment, will be conducted in heaven, just after the Rapture of the church. This judgment is described in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.

For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Hence, the result of this judgment is a reward or loss. All our bad works will be consumed by fire, and our good works shall remain and we will be rewarded for them.

Judgment #3: Of the Jews

This is a judgment of the Jews. While the church is being judged in heaven, the Jews will be judged on earth during the Tribulation. The basis of their judgment is their rejection of God and of their messiah. For their sin they have been scattered among the nations until the Time of the Gentiles are fulfilled—at the Rapture. At that time, they will be gathered back to the Holy Land and will suffer under the Antichrist and under God’s wrath upon the earth, which is called the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble” (Jer. 30:4-7). Many Jews will die, but a third will call upon the Lord and be saved (Ezek. 13:8-9).

Judgment #4: Of the Nations

This is the judgment of the nations, a judgment on all Gentiles who are still alive after Armageddon. This judgment is sometimes called the judgment of the sheep and goats. The sheep represent believers and the goats represent unbelievers. This judgment is well described for us in Matthew 25:31-46. Here it describes King Jesus as separating all the people as a shepherd would separate the sheep from the goats. And He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on the left. Here is the passage from verse 34:

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  35 ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;  36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’  37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?  38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?  39 ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’  40 “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink;  43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’  44 “Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’  45 “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’  46 “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Notice the basis of the judgment of these Gentile peoples. It hinges on how they will treat Christ’s brothers. Most scholars would say that these brothers refer to Jewish believers, mainly the 144,000 Jews who will be His witnesses.

As you remember, during the Tribulation no one will be able to buy or sell anything without the beast’s mark. But since believers were not to take the mark, they will have to get food and anything they needed by other means. Since the Jewish witnesses were to commit all of their time on preaching the gospel, they could not spend much time trying to provide for themselves.

Those who were believing Gentiles, they were the ones that will provide for them. Even though they will not take the mark either, they will make the time to somehow feed themselves as well as the believing Jews. And God will help them do it. He will give them the heart and the knowhow to feed themselves as well as others. Moreover, this good work will reveal that they in fact are believers—that they are His sheep.

Judgment #5: Of the Unbeliever

This fifth judgment is called the great white throne judgment. The time of this judgment is immediately after the end of the Satanic rebellion, when the devil is thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:7-10), and just before the new heaven and earth comes into existence (Rev. 21:1). Hence, it will be during that time when there is nothing—when the old universe is “passed away” or “destroyed with intense heat” (2 Pt. 3:10), and when the new heaven and earth have not yet come (Rev. 21:1). There will be nothing but a “great white throne” with God sitting on it. This is the judgment of all unbelievers of all time. They will all be resurrected and will be brought here to be judged. The account of this judgment is in Revelation 20:11-15.

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Second Purpose for The Tribulation: To Bring Judgment on All Unbelievers

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There are three great purposes for the Tribulation: 1) to prepare Israel for her Messiah; 2) to bring judgment on all unbelievers and unbelieving nations; and 3) to bring salvation to the repentant lost.

To Bring Judgment on All Unbelievers and Unbelieving Nations

This second purpose falls close behind in rank to the first; for all of the Tribulation is full of the judgments of God. We will look at a few key passages that describe God’s judgment, with a few comments (bold text for emphasis).

Deuteronomy 30:7

And the Lord your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you.

Here we see a very early promise of judgment on unbelievers, but more specifically on Israel’s enemies.

Isaiah 13:9-12

Behold, the day of the Lord is coming,

Cruel, with fury and burning anger,

To make the land a desolation;

And He will exterminate its sinners from it.

10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations

Will not flash forth their light;

The sun will be dark when it rises,

And the moon will not shed its light.

11 Thus I will punish the world for its evil,

And the wicked for their iniquity;

I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud,

And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.

12 I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold,

And mankind than the gold of Ophir.

In this passage God shows us how he will judge the unbelieving and proud sinners. He will first terrify them with earthquakes and cosmic disturbances. Then he will exterminate most of them; he will make them scarcer than pure gold.

Isaiah 24:19-22

19 The earth is broken asunder,

The earth is split through,

The earth is shaken violently.

20 The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard,

And it totters like a shack,

For its transgression is heavy upon it,

And it will fall, never to rise again.

21 So it will happen in that day,

That the Lord will punish the host of heaven, on high,

And the kings of the earth, on earth.

22 And they will be gathered together

Like prisoners in the dungeon,

And will be confined in prison;

And after many days they will be punished.

Here we have revealed to us judgment on the earth, and also judgement on the evil angels and on humans. Verse twenty-two describes the judgment of angels and humans. I believe the gathering together “like prisoners in the dungeon” is what happens after death. They (evil angels and humans) will be held in a place of holding until the final judgment, called the Great White throne judgment (Rev. 20:11-15). This place of holding I believe is described for us in Luke 16:19-31, where we have the story of the rich man and Lazarus. So, it appears that the holding place is full of torments, and they will be tormented even before they come to the final and eternal judgment of hell.

Jeremiah 25:32-33

Thus says the Lord of hosts,

“Behold, evil is going forth

From nation to nation,

And a great storm is being stirred up

From the remotest parts of the earth.

33 “And those slain by the Lord on that day shall be from one end of the earth to the other. They shall not be lamented, gathered, or buried; they shall be like dung on the face of the ground.

Here is described for us the tremendous evil on the earth in that day; it will spread from nation to nation. And the Lord’s anger and judgment will come quickly in response, and there will not be any time to lament them, gather them or bury them. They will lie there to rot, and the rotting bodies will be as dung spread over the earth.

Zechariah 13:2

“And it will come about in that day,” declares the Lord of hosts, “that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; and I will also remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land.

Here we have the prophecy that all idols, false prophets and unclean spirits will be removed from the earth. This will happen during the fires of the Tribulation; all evil will be removed and cleaned off the earth to make room for the coming kingdom of Messiah Jesus.

Matthew 25:31-46

“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 “And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? 38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 ‘And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 “And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ 41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44 “Then they themselves also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45 “Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

This passage describes the judgment of those who are alive immediately after He returns and before His millennial kingdom. It is often called the judgment of the nations. I would say that the judgment here is the sentence, where He says, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” But I don’t believe they go directly to the Lake of Fire. I think they will go to that holding place where the rich man is. Then after the millennial kingdom is over, they will appear at the Great White Throne judgment seat and be sentenced again and cast into the Lake of fire for eternity.

Revelation 3:10

‘Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.

The “hour of testing” is referring to the Tribulation, the 7-year period when God’s divine wrath is expressed as seals, trumpets, and bowls.